D

ATA PERTAINING TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE LITHUANIAN INSURRECTION (25 March 1831), RETRIEVED FROM SWEDISH DIPLOMATIC SOURCES

 

Veniamin Ciobanu

 

“A. D. Xenopol” Institute of History, E-mail: veniamin@xenopol.iasi.astral.ro

 

Acknowledgments

The article is based on a paper presented at the SecondInternational Conference of the Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies: Black Sea and Baltic Sea Regions: Confluences, influences and crosscurrents in the modern and contemporary ages, at Târgoviste, May 20-22, 2011.

 

Abstract:

Similarly to the Polish insurrection of November 1830, the Lithuanian one, occurring in March 1831, retained the attention of the Swedish diplomacy from the very beginning. This was made possible, in the first place, by the fact that the events were connected by a strong link of causality, in the sense that they aimed at severing Poland and Lithuania from the political-institutional system of the Russian Empire  and at reconstituting the old one, i.e. the Polish-Lithuanian Union. But the latter’s victory would have first resulted in the radical upheaval of the ratio of forces in North-Eastern Europe, which  could have also affected the Swedish-Norwegian political-institutional system, since it was assumed that the Norwegians would not have spared any time in following the Lithuanian and Polish example by denouncing the personal union with Sweden. Moreover, the revolutionary wave sweeping over Europe in 1830 was not one to avoid Sweden. Unlike other areas, the Swedes that opposed King Karol XIV Jan’s government went no further than to criticise it, despite the fact that both the criticism and the programme of the opposition kept increasing in boldness. The Swedish diplomacy therefore approached the issue of the Polish and Lithuanian insurrections from the same perspective, taking particular care to observe their evolution, placing itself in a position of reservless condemnation of such behaviour. The documents transcribed in the following pages are the diplomatic reports of N. Fr. Palmstjerna, the chargé d’affaires of Sweden in Petersburg, and were selected from the Sveriges Riksarkivet, Kabinettet/UD Huvudarkivet, E2D, 702, the Petersburg fund, 1821, Jan.-iuni. They sometimes contain very detailed information pertaining to the early phase of the Lithuanian insurrection. By introducing them to the academic circuit, we express our hope that they will contribute to the expansion of the research horizon of the history of North-Eastern Europe from the first half of the 19th century.

 

Rezumat:

Ca si insurectia din Polonia, izbucnita în luna noiembrie 1830, cea din Lituania, declansata în luna martie 1831, a retinut, chiar de la început, atentia diplomatiei suedeze. În primul rând, pentru ca ambele evenimente erau într-o strânsa legatura de cauzalitate, în sensul ca urmareau desprinderea Poloniei si a Lituaniei din sistemul politico-institutional al Imperiului Rusiei si reconstituirea celui vechi, anihilat de ocupatia rusa, anume Uniunea Polono-Lituaniana. Or, victoria acestora ar fi produs o rasturnare radicala a raportului de forte din Europa de Nord-Est, în primul rând, si care ar fi putut afecta si sistemul politico-institutional suedo-norvegian, de vreme ce era de presupus ca norvegienii nu ar fi întârziat sa ia exemplul polonezilor si lituanienilor si sa denunte uniunea personala cu Suedia. În plus, valul revolutiilor care s-au declansat în Europa în anul 1830 nu a ocolit nici Suedia. Spre deosebire de alte zone, suedezii care se opuneau guvernarii regelui Karol al XIV-lea Jan s-au limitat doar la critici la adresa acesteia, desi atât criticele, cât si programul opozitiei deveneau tot mai îndraznete. Asadar, din aceasta perspectiva a abordat si diplomatia suedeza problema insurectiilor din Polonia si din Lituania., ale caror evolutii le-a urmarit cu o atentie deosebita si fata de care s-a postat pe pozitia condamnarii lor, fara rezerve. Documentele reproduse în aceste pagini sunt rapoartele diplomatice ale lui N. Fr. Palmstjerna, însarcinatul cu afaceri al Suediei la Petersburg si au fost selectate din Sveriges Riksarkivet, Kabinettet/UD Huvudarkivet, E2D, 702, fond Petersburg, 1821, Jan.-iuni. Ele contin informatii, uneori foarte detaliate, referitoare la faza de început a insurectiei din Lituania. Punându-le în circuitul stiintific, ne exprimam speranta ca ele vor contribui la largirea orizontului de cercetare a istoriei Europei de Nord-Est, din prima jumatate a secolului XIX.

 

Keywords: Russia, Poland, Lithuania, insurrection.

---

 06.Ciobanu.pdf